A good pancake is a beautiful thing. So is a stiff drink. Lifelong Portlander Dan Cogan aims to bring both to the Beaumont neighborhood next month when he debuts Batter Griddle & Drinkery, an all day/late night pancake house complete with a full bar.

“The idea came from a love of going to the Original Hotcake House late at night for years,” says owner Cogan, namedropping SE Powell Boulevard’s beloved post-drunk greasy spoon. “Usually people go from the bars first, then go get hotcakes afterwards. The idea was to give people a place that they didn’t have to leave.”

Cogan, a local restaurant industry lifer who last managed a NE Portland Burgerville, ups the ante on the humble café model’s line up of flapjacks, bacon and eggs: barrel-aged cocktails and a stomach-swelling line up of wild of pancake amalgamations from Matzo meal cakes to Cubano pork belly waffles fill out the menu at his 65-seat spot.

Rather than a calculated marketing ploy, the sprawling menu—which also includes Asian fried chicken and waffles and an Elvis pancake stuffed with bananas, bacon, and peanut butter—seems to be a mark of sheer enthusiasm for the pancake arts. It's a goofy, over-the-top breath of maple-scented air admist all the chic wood-fired grills that have sprung up in the quadrant lately. Cogan terms his spot a simple, “utilitarian” venture without a big name chef but concedes that they will grind the peanut butter themselves and cure their bacon in-house among other hand-crafted goodies. (Only in Portland could that be considered “utilitarian.”)

As for the crowd they’re aiming to feed from 7 am to midnight (and possibly later on the weekends), Cogan says all are welcome. He politely declines to offer an opinion on the passage of Measure 91 and its potentially positive effect on his business. But Batter does plan on offering bacon and mac n cheese wrapped in a crepe. (Which sounds like a double thumbs up to me.)

Batter Griddle and Drinkery
4425 NE Fremont St.
Mon-Thurs: 7am - 11pm
Fri: 7am - 1am
Sat: 8am - 1am
Sun: 8am - 11pm